


Mononoke

by Timballisto



Series: The Ninth Life [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-14
Updated: 2012-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-21 02:11:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/592300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timballisto/pseuds/Timballisto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The many reincarnations of Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno. AU/Plotbunnies. Mostly Sakura and Naruto-centric. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <em>The blue eyes returned again, and this time she caught sight of shoulder length, wild blond hair and savage, black scars that were scored across his face.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <em>Demon…</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sakura Haruno gasped as she struggled onward, her shaking legs on the verge of collapse as she staggered against the trunk of an ancient oak, a bloody smear left on the smooth bark for its trouble

Blood leaked sluggishly from the stab wounds in her back and side, healed enough to allow movement but still not enough to shake her pursuers. Even the Kevlar of her ANBU armor hadn't stopped the missing-ninja's tanto from entering her side before she had turned his head into cranberry juice.

Sakura let out another shuddering breath as she adjusted her lion ANBU mask, her pink hair spewing back from the painted face like a real lion's mane, short, pink, and wild.

"God dammit," Sakura muttered as she felt the annoying pinpricks of the two chakra signatures on her senses, coming in due north. "I barely have enough chakra for a henge." Still, she'd die on her feet with a kunai in her hand before she would be stabbed in the back while fleeing.

Then the two signatures were on her and she didn't have any more time to talk to herself.

"Thought you'd get away huh, kunoichi?" One of the Oto shinobi sneered; tasting the term as if it were a vile swear word. "Kabuto-sama has been displeased with your constant meddling ANBU-san."

"Well, maybe the fact that I just killed twnety of the Chuunin you sent to apprehend me irked him a little." Sakura rasped, her usual calm, sweet voice roughened by a night of dehydration and disuse. "Considering you only caught to me because of 20 to 1 odds isn't something to be proud of."

The other ninja, a kunoichi, stepped forward, the pale moonlight illuminating her Oto headband and jounin vest. Unlike her companion, a blustery Chuunin, she was lithe and silent. A water re-breather covered the bottom of her face, attaching to her Oto headgear headband.

Sakura's heart sank. She could take the boatful one, even as she was now, but the jounin… she could kill her, but she'd probably die in the process. She had lived a good life, she supposed. However, dying at age nineteen was not something she was looking forward to.

Sakura closed her eyes and took a deep breath… before swinging her foot around and pulverizing the skull of the Oto Chuunin who had tried to unsuccessfully sneak up on her, instantly killing him.

Shaking her foot to get some of the blood off of her heel, Sakura stepped away from the tree, facing her jounin opponent head on, feeling the heaviness set in her bones again as the adrenaline faded from her system.

"I hope you weren't attached to him." Sakura muttered; her eyes were lidded as she stared through the holes of her mask.

The jounin shifted slightly, and Sakura could see her opponent's eyes darting to the bloody corpse of her companion. "Not… particularly."

"Good." Sakura whispered, before twisting her body and allowing a barrage of kunai to pass her by. Absently, Sakura threw a shuriken at the mizu bunshin she'd been talking to the entire time, dispelling it, before fully engaging her opponent.

The Oto-nin was good, but Sakura could tell that her strengths did not lie in taijutsu. Darting forward with flagging strength, she managed to get under her enemies guard and land a punishing blow to her abdomen. Blood and saliva spurted out of the Oto kunoichi's mouth, landing on Sakura's mask.

"T-tag." Sakura said weakly, her legs crumpling as she slumped to the ground against a tree, blood coloring the grass a bright scarlet.

The Oto-kunoichi got to her feet fast enough, cradling bruised abdominals and displaced ribs, attempting to get her wind back.

"Y-you…" the kunoichi snarled, bringing her hands up into hand signs. "I'll roast you alive!"

Sakura's eyes widened as she glimpsed the last hand sign of the lengthy sequence. Tora, the signature of a fire jutsu. Shit.

She didn't want to die.

"Katon: Kayruu Endan!"

Gathering her flagging strength, Sakura lurched to the side, the scorching heat of the dragon of flame licking her side as it roared past. The woodland behind her was incinerated, the flames instantly turning even the most resilient of trees to black ash. And, to Sakura's horror, beyond the destruction, a Shinto shrine merrily burned, its red painted arch peeling as fire licked at the offerings housed within. With another pang of fear, Sakura realized exactly what type of shrine it was.

"Baka," Sakura snarled, stifling the urge to cough at the smoke. "You just destroyed a demon's shrine."

The Oto-kunoichi sneered, her disdain of Sakura's superstitions clear on her face. Admittedly, most shinobi weren't as cautious about that sort of this as Konoha shinobi, but who could blame them? Every demon, regardless of type, went out of their way to make Konoha shinobi life difficult. No doubt in revenge for sealing away the greatest of them into a jinchuuriki who had disappeared off of the face of the earth a few years after birth.

The rasp of a kunai sliding out of its holster brought Sakura's drifting mind back to reality. Her blood ran cold as she realized that this might be the end for her. Reflected in the cold steel of the kunai, she could see her younger days as Team Seven's only kunoichi, along with her traitorous crush Sasuke Uchiha and her socially awkward companion Sai. She remembered the sunny days of Konoha before she was a Jounin or an ANBU and she was simply Sakura, the Godaime's Apprentice and her time was spent saving lives instead of taking them….

Sakura's breath gurgled slightly in her throat as her burns and her stab wound caught up with her. Her vision darkened as she couldn't get enough air to feed her oxygen starved brain.

'No…' Sakura thought, her Inner Sakura screaming as her vision tunneled to the lone kunai in the Oto-shinobi's hand. 'Not, not like this…'

"I-I won't die." Sakura gasped, clasping at a senbon tucked into the lining of her kunai holster. "Not without taking you with me."

With the strength that only comes from the Shinigami, Sakura was up on one knee, arm extended. Her poisoned senbon whizzed through the air, only a small glint of metal visible as it sped toward her opponent's eye.

To her dismay, the Oto-nin merely plucked it out of the air, looking at it briefly before tucking it into her own kunai holster. "Nice try."

"Heh." Sakura let out a strangled laugh, blood welling up over her lips and spilling down her chin as her internal wounds intensified. She slumped sideways, her pink hair damp from the blood and dewy grass. "I… was too slow." As her life-blood gently flowed out of her onto the grass, her eyes slowly emptied, until only a glimmer of life remained. "…again."

The world grew hazy as she focused on the smug face of her opponent. Her eyes blurred, and flashes of color flooded across her vision. Why could she feel air on her face? Who had taken her mask off of her? Were those blue eyes that simmered in anger and…concern? Sakura watched, fascinated, as they slowly morphed to red, fangs and malice, a flash of yellow as they turned away. A low growl reached her ears, and she felt something wet splash her pale face. Rust filled her nose as she struggled with shallow breaths. Blood.

The blue eyes returned again, and this time she caught sight of shoulder length, wild blond hair and savage, black scars that were scored across his face.

Demon…

Then her vision tunneled and she knew no more.


	2. Chapter 2

It didn't take very long for Haruno Sakura to acknowledge the fact she was alive. The pain was enough of reminder to that. That and she could feel her chakra weakly pulsing along with her heartbeat.

"C'mon, work…work…" someone mumbled above her.

Sakura desperately wanted to open her eyes, but she couldn't. Her eyelids were too heavy. Her body was too tired. She was in too much pain.

Her mind was all over the place and her mind could hardly string her thoughts together. It was understandable. She shouldn't even be alive, let alone awake. Conscious.

She could feel a tingling warmth on her wounds, and she could feel the radiating heat from whatever was…healing her?

Sakura's brow furrowed as she coaxed her healing chakra along her pathways, down her side until it pooled around the independent energy coating her wounds. With a mental hiss, she flinched back as her chakra was burned away by the healing chakra. Tensed, Sakura inspected her chakra pathways, frowning at the small, insignificant burns that peppered her tenketsu.

It didn't seem malicious, just…caustic. Curious, Sakura blindly groped down her side toward the stab wound in her stomach…

"I wouldn't do that."

"Wha-!" Sakura started, half into a sitting position before she registered the debilitating waves of pain that radiated from her back and side.

"Whoa!" A pair of strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, gently resting her shoulders back on the fluffy pillows that propped her up into a less painful position. "You just woke up, you shouldn't be moving around like that."

Blond, was the first thing that came to mind. Sakura blinked as she took in the vivid color of the young man's blond hair, falling in a bright mane down to the top of his shoulders. Two distinct locks of hair fell in front of his ears, framing a tanned face. By his features, she wouldn't guess him to be any older than her, barely nineteen years in age.

If not for his hair and lack of red clan tattoos, Sakura would guess he was an Inuzuka. His canines were elongated, gathering into points that looked wickedly sharp. Six dark scars posed as whiskers on his face, and his eyes, though blue, were slit like a wild animal.

"Who are you?" Sakura asked, shifting in the comfortable bed. After all, she had to be ready to react if he was an enemy.

"Naruto Uzumaki." He said, flashing his canine teeth in a grin. "What's yours?"

"Sakura Haruno." Sakura replied easily, subtly checking for any sign of allegiance in the Spartan room, bare of anything except her futon.

"Ah, I've heard of you!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, seemingly unaware of the sudden tensing of Sakura's shoulders. "You're that medic-nin! The one who studied under Obaa-chan!"

Sakura twitched a tick working above her eyebrow. "O…baa-chan…?" Gritting her teeth, Sakura forced her reflexive punch instinct down, reminding herself that Naruto was a stranger, and not an annoying teammate who deserved a super powered punch to the noggin.

"I've seen her! The saggy one, right?"

"BAKA!" Sakura yelled, spinning in her seat and lodging a punch into the blonds' skull, sending him catapulting through the paper thin walls into the next room over. "Treat Tsunade-shishou with some respect!"

Even as she finished her scolding, Sakura knew that was a bad idea. Her body was ripped through by another wave of pain that almost made her bite through her tongue.

Immediately , the Naruto was at her side, all signs of her punch invisible on his face.

"Open your mouth." He commanded, noticing the trace of blood from her bit tongue on her lips. At her hesitance, he grabbed her chin with calloused, worn hands and pried open her mouth, ignoring her struggles. "I don't want you to choke."

With a simple brush of a finger, Sakura could literally feel the teeth marks on her tongue disappear, leaving only the bloody residue in her mouth.

"What happened to the Oto-nin?" Sakura asked weakly, whatever technique Naruto did had sapped some of her already low energy.

Naruto's eyes narrowed and she swore they flashed red for a second. "She won't be bothering anyone anymore. That shrine was particularly important to me."

Sakura blinked, confused by his anger over the overgrown, untended shrine. "We're you the priest in charge of it?" Though, looking at his current clothing; a loose black hakama with a red haori pooling around his seated form, she doubted it.

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise for a second, confused, before he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and grinned. "Nah," he said, chuckling. "My father met my mother there." He said, a slight blush dusting his cheeks.

Sakura winced as Inner Sakura let out a fangirly screech. So kawaiiiii!

"Also, the shrine marked the edge of my territory." At this point, Sakura definitely noticed the feral attributes of her host as his eyes flashed red and he bared his teeth. "I was patrolling my borders when I noticed you both trespassing."

Sakura blinked and nodded, settling back on her pillows. And even in her sleepy, pain filled mind, she noticed something out of place.

"Wait, your land?" she demanded. "There are no reports of any feudal lords of any sort in this area! In fact, this has been the quietest part of the Konoha-Sound border since the war started!"

Naruto smirked, as if he were enjoying his own private joke. "This isn't a state recognized officially by the daimyos of the elemental countries," Naruto stood and went to the door, and looked over his shoulder. "If you asked any of those fat lords who like to lounge around in their fancy palaces, they wouldn't know my name. But hey," he shrugged. "I'm not a feudal lord."

"Than what are you?"

This time Sakura actually gasped as she witnessed Naruto's iris change to a bloody red, his whiskers deepen to a thick black, and his atypical canines lengthened to canine proportions.

"Why, I'm a demon lord of course."


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm screwed." Sakura muttered as she sank back into her pillows, throwing an arm across her eyes. "Tsunade-shishou couldn't have trained me for this- hell, Amaterasu couldn't have trained me for this. I am not qualified for bullshit of this magnitude."

She sighed, groaning. "This is so Kakashi-senpai's area of expertise."

Seriously, who the hell got captured by demon lords?

"Maybe he wouldn't eat me?" Sakura asked, musing aloud to herself and the empty room- noting the paper thin walls and the extremely traditional tatami mats that covered the floor. "I'm probably too stringy."

Hopefully.

Sakura passed the next few days alternating from discreetly healing herself in preparation of an escape attempt, and mentally updating her will. In all that time, to her relief, Naruto didn't deign to revisit her. Her meals were left by her bedside when she slept and even when she attempted to remain awake to see who fed her, she always felt too drowsy to stay awake- causing her to suspect a genjutsu.

Really, this Naruto character was smart; she'd definitely take a member of his household hostage if she could manage it and use them to escape if given half a chance.

She guessed the old tales weren't far off- kitsune really were as crafty as the legends said they were. Sneaky little bastard.

Sakura stretched, her back aching from laying down too long. While she frequently got up to exercise and move about so her muscles didn't atrophy she was still definitely sore from being stabbed so many times and she suspected she'd scar rather spectacularly on her stomach- that chakra didn't seem to be very healthy…

"How is my lovely visitor doing this fine, wonderful, fantastical morning?"

Sakura cursed and jumped as she turned to see Naruto standing in the entrance to her little sick room, smirking.

"Kami, " Sakura mumbled, holding her chest as she tried to get her breath back. "don't do that Naruto."

"Sakura-chan…" the demon lord whined, shutting the sliding door behind him, his elegant blue kimono and white haori swishing as his walked.

"I'm not Sakura-chan." Sakura muttered, vaguely weirded out by the overly familiar way with which the adolescent (ancient?) demon was referring to her. "Geez, you're so rude…"

"I'm not Naruto." The lord teased, grinning as Sakura's face flushed. Naruto, without the –san could be referred as a very intimate way to refer to someone, or derogatory.

Sakura meant derogatory. Naruto thought intimate.

This was a problem.


End file.
